Oh! That dress: When fashion gets political

Nudity over real fur, campaigns against size zero models and the catastrophic tragedy of blood diamonds- it would seem that fashion and politics are about as compatible as low- fat and fried chicken. However, due to big names, even bigger brands and a bucket load of controversy; fashion simply cannot escape the clutches of politics much like we mere mortals cannot escape the perils of the soon to be implemented- higher taxes.

Therefore Lady Gaga’s( ahem)  latest ensemble is no exception to the rule as she attended the VMAs in September in nothing short of bizarre, a dress made entirely of beef. Absolutely nobody can deny that on the night Miss Gaga was by far one of the ‘tastiest’ guests. Yes, a meat dress accompanied by a meat purse and a cute little meat hat, the dress was worn by Gaga as a statement against the US Military’s ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell policy’ a policy prohibiting the United States military from efforts to discover or reveal closeted gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members or applicants, while barring those who are openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual from military service.

So where does the dress figure?

The monster superstar responded to the hype, ‘ If we don’t stand up for what we believe in, and if we don’t stand up for our rights, pretty soon we’re going to have as much right as the meat on our bones.’

So was this the right way to make a statement or is it yet another negative mark against fashion?
The dress clearly hit a raw (and meaty) nerve with PETA’S President Ingrid Newkirk saying, ‘Lady Gaga’s job is to do outlandish things and this certainly qualifies as outlandish because mean is something you want to avoid putting on or in your body.  No matter how beautifully it is presented, flesh from a tortured animal is flesh from a tortured animal. Meat represents bloody violence and suffering, so if that’s the look they were going for, they achieved it.

Hence, apart from getting PETA’s knickers in a twist, here are 6 things that the Monster Machine achieved by wearing that dress...

1.    It got the world talking, fashion or otherwise. Hence the title of this post, a few damning blogs from PETA here and there and a mention or two on the Ellen Degeneres show and voila! Everybody wants to see the dress; it is social media at its best.
2.    It makes us question what exactly American voters actually voted for. Is it really a case of don’t ask don’t tell voters?
3.    It made us question just how forward thinking we the west actually are. The western world is forever promoting forwardness and regularly criticises those outside certain ideologies and yet this policy is still firmly in place.
4.    It reaffirmed fashion and politics’ stormy relationship. It proves that boundaries can be pushed, clothes CAN demonstrate a strong statement, whether it is religious, political or sexual for example.
5.    It allowed copy cats in on the act. Just check out the Stilton dress as modelled by Coronation Street actress Brooke Vincent, who plays schoolgirl Sophie Webster in the popular soap cheesy but pretty good.
6.    Lunch. With the combination of fashion and politics clearly here to stay, we now can eat a piece of fashion history as the meat dress is to be turned into a type of jerky as confirmed by original designer Franc Fernandez.  "The dress will go through a process where it becomes a sort of 'jerky' and will be archived; the meat dries out, rather than rotting. It becomes jerky but it shouldn't be worn again.’

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Fashion Forward: Making The Grade ( Part 2)

Celebrity in Focus: Rihanna

Like we said before we all need a little bit of help sometimes- even a celebrity or two especially when shopping online.  But imagine how we nearly choked on our afternoon peppermint tea when we were clicking around online attempting our online shopping and saw this sprawled across cyber space.

The hair we love, the dress? Ok we can let that slide; we don’t even mind the pick ‘n’ mix assortment of bangles, but the shoes and socks. THE SHOES AND SOCKS! Surely the beautiful Bajan hit maker has access to a computer, a Blackberry or even a mirror- never mind not shopping online, this girl clearly decided to shop without access to light!  She certainly needs to get an app for that and until she goes back to her usual snappy dressing self, staying at home and buying all her dresses online seems like a pretty good idea.

 It really is a case of good girl gone bad, the ill matching coordination, combined with the fact that the socks looks like they may have been suspiciously swindled from her grandfather’s sock draw  makes us feel quite sad (for her  grandfather as he’s probably looking for those socks now). As for those Dorothy looking ruby red shoes? We certainly wish three clicks at the ankle would make them disappear (or should that be of the mouse while she attempts to buy clothes online. If this were a test, we’d be writing ‘try harder’ all over Miss Sunshine’s script.

Fashion Grade: F

Is it just us or do you wish that Rhianna had a quick umbrella to hand, or do you love the experimental stage she’s going through?
If so we’d love to hear it